This paper aims to investigate markedness in nominal and pronominal morphology of modern north-western Iranian languages from a diachronic perspective based on Hawkinʼs (2004) minimized forms principle. Based on this principle marked forms ocuupy the lowest and unmarked forms the highest position in performance-based hierarchies. Forms are ranked based on their frecuency in performance-based hierarchies. The reason that there exist these different frecuensies can be attributed to communicative reasons, complixity and different occurances of linguistic units in outside world. In this paper, we have shown that markedness changes in number and gender hierarchies are in line with minimized forms principle and its predictions in the investigated languages, but there are some exceptions in case hierarchy, which is not in line minimized forms predictions.

Gender differences in the hierarchy of values of Iranian university students' were examined and the relationship between academic majors and those hierarchies was studied. A random selection of 300 female and 300 male Iranian university students, recruited from four faculties of Islamic Azad University South Branch, completed the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS). Findings showed that the students' value hierarchies were consistent with the pan-cultural hierarchies.However certain unconventional differences were noted. The male's and female's hierarchy of values were shown to be similar. Several similarities also were found among students with diverse majors.

The principle of hierarchy is one of the essential principles of the universe. In the case of traditional arts it is very significant too. This significance is due to the position of the principle of hierarchy in the frame of traditional thought. This article is first aimed to explain the role of hierarchy in traditional and Islamic- Persian thought in order to examine its various aspects and dimensions. Then in order to examine one of the aspects of hierarchy in Iranian mosques, first the mosques have been categorized into two types based on the way of entering the courtyard. After that the way of entering the court yard is compared with that of entering the iwan and the domed chamber. At the end, the conclusions of this article are represented in two horizons. First, in Iranian mosques the entrance into the courtyard is not coincided with the axes crossing the center of the courtyard. In other words, entering the court yard is from somewhere in margin, but entering the iwan and domed chamber is exactly coincided with the quibla axis which is the main one. The remarkable point is that one is not allowed to pass through the main axis while entering the courtyard but one is allowed to do so while exiting the court yard into the iwan and domed chamber. It is like that some thing happens when somebody is not allowed to enter through the axis but after that is allowed to do so. As if the person who is passing through the iwan is not any longer the one who was marginalized while at the entering point. This difference in the manner of entering two succeeding spaces of a mosque is a testimony to a kind of "hierarchy" which I called it "the hierarchy of becoming a confidant" in this paper. Second, although the architecture is made up of an entirely material structure, it can have a positive impact on the process of the human's soul being connected to the transcendental horizons of existence and can facilitate his or her Gnostic and spiritual perceptions. Such a device as "the hierarchy of becoming a confidant" in a mosque, brings about some differences between the manner of entering one space and the next one and intensifies a feeling of being present in another presence, so that the architecture will play an important role in transferring the person from one state of presence to another. Generally, in the world of tradition there is no division between the natural and the supernatural; all the horizons of existence are in a chainlike and interwoven interaction. Traditional wisdom does not divide knowledge and sciences into a number of restricted areas isolated from the rest horizons of the truth. As a result, it sees the body of architecture in relation to transcendental concepts.

One of the solutions that philosophers have presented to justify the emergence of plurality from unity has been to consider a hierarchy of beings. Sana'i Ghaznavi is among the thinkers who believed in a hierarchy for beings and was influenced by the Neoplatonists in this discussion. But Sana'i is also influenced by religious wisdom. This has caused his opinion differ from Muslim Neoplatonic thinkers. His emphasis on the divine will and the dependence of the general intellect and the general soul on the matter is, more than anything else, what shows his difference from the Neoplatonic philosophers. While considering a role for mediators in creation, Sana'i emphasizes that they are a facet of the divine order and what is really the cause of creation of beings is divine power and God directly created beings. Sana'i is more intent on praising God and uses the general intellect and soul for this purpose. However, what really exists in his opinion is not the intellect and the soul, but God.